Weekend Meme: Holiday Food Meme

Since I'm very involved with my planning for the coming Thanksgiving dinner, I thought this meme from Ur-Spo at Spo-Reflections would be very appropriate. So name a food that you associate with each holiday and if you can provide a little story to it.

What foods do you associate with each holiday?

1. New Year’s
Champagne and caviar. Not everyone likes caviar and good caviar is hard to find and expensive but it's an indulgence thing for me. Actually I can't remember the last time I've had it, it had to be almost 7 years now. And although I don't know how to appreciate alcohol, I like the bubbly. The sweeter ones like Martini & Rossi's Asti Spumante.


I'm sure it's pretty low in the rank but suits me fine.

2. Valentine’s Day
Russell Stover's heart-shaped chocolate. I love chocolate but I loathe those. Way too sweet, and you know it's not what good chocolate would taste like, but they are all over the place during Valentine's. Just a disclaimer here, if I ever get these for a boy, it's ground for breakup!

3. Easter/Passover/vernal equinox
A huge glazed ham, deviled eggs and chocolate eggs. Ham, love. I still don't know how I feel about those spiraled ham yet. Convenient, yes, but ham itself is easy to cut already and I like my meat thick. I like eggs in general and deviled eggs work. On chocolate eggs though, hate Cadbury's creme eggs... too sweet again. Love Kinder eggs though, grew up with them love the little surprise toys inside especially if they have to be assembled. I even love the capsule, you can make it pop and shoot it across the hall.


Kinder. God invented them.

4. Independence Day/Canada Day
Hot Dogs, Burgers, Nothing special there. Anyone solved the 10 buns/8 dogs issue yet? Oh how about corn? sweet, pleasant and versatile. Love it as a cold salad or a cold or warm chowder.

5. Hallow’en.
Chocolate again, of course. Despite my previous cheer for corn, I hate candy corns. Yuck!

6. Thanksgiving/harvest festival
Turkey, stuffing, pumpkin pie and green bean casserole. Turkey is a given, and you rarely have stuffing without having turkey. Not a big fan of pumpkin pie or sweet potato pie but they sell them around thanksgiving to raise funds for the food delivery service for HIV/AIDS patients here in Philly. Now, green bean casserole is an enigma to me, I think they had a commercial years ago for French's fried onion or Campbell's cream of mushroom soup saying that they'd be great for making green beans casserole which is a Thanksgiving staple. I've never had it before and always wondered how it would taste. Oh, I love Starbucks' Grandma's Turkey Dinner sandwich, which has a bit of turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce in whole grain bread. They're seasonal, I will definitely look for them now. maybe instead of making dinner next week I'll just buy a box of these. It'd be so much easier.

7. Christmas/Chanukkah/winter solstice
Yule Log, Egg Nog and Spiced Apple Cider. Can't say I like egg nog or apple cider. Of course, years ago when I was in San Francisco I saw Starbucks has a Caramel Apple Cider with whipped cream and that changed my point of view. Hmm, why do I all the sudden like starbucks so much, I used to loathe them, I guess anything is better with caramel and whipped cream. Yule Log, however, is just wonderful. Love the chocolate mousse covered wood bark and the meringue snow man and mushrooms. All the little decorations and powdered sugars can make a grown man cry.


A well-made yule log is a work of art.

8. Birthdays
Cake and Noodle Soup. Love cake, gotta have one for your birthday even if it's a tiny cup cake with a candle on it. The Chinese believe in good omens, and no omen is better than having long strands of noodles on your birthday symbolizes a long life. My grandma will make me instant noodles on my birthday for breakfast. I imagine all the chow meins and lo meins would do too, even spaghettis, just don't use zitis or orzos.

9. Marriages
I have yet to be in a western wedding, so for weddings it's shark-fin soups and abalone for me. Don't like abalone, it's like chewing leather. I think people just eat it for the novelty of it, I rather have a steak any day. Now shark-fin soup, I like. Since shark fin is so rare in the old days, they put the best of everything in the soup and a very specific taste is developed. I think most restaurant uses synthetic shark fins these days, but it still taste the same. Although I have to say, given the bad reputation of Chinese products, I hope they are not using plastic as a substitute.


Shark fin soup, best with a dash of vinegar.

10. Funerals/wakes
I have not been to enough funerals to get a sense of the food but when I was growing up we got to visit our ancestors or graves every now and then and we always brought fruit and put them in the shape of a pyramid. They are usually apples or oranges. That and roast pork or a whole chicken.

This post is making me hungry... Have a great weekend!